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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27159829">A Sentient Chronicom</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/amandak0312/pseuds/amandak0312'>amandak0312</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Compliant, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. References, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Spoilers, Androids, Canon Universe, Family, Family Feels, Gen, Marvel Universe, Robots, SHIELD, Season/Series 07, Stars, Team Dynamics, Team Feels, Team as Family, chronicoms - Freeform, enoch - Freeform, enoch's death, long live enoch, we love you enoch, we miss you everyday, zephyr one</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 23:54:24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,648</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27159829</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/amandak0312/pseuds/amandak0312</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A retelling of how Enoch, our favorite sentient Chronicom, sacrificed himself to save his team. Includes direct dialogue from the episode "As I Have Always Been" (7x09). Published on fanfiction.net.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A Sentient Chronicom</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“No, there has to be another solution.” </p><p>“We have tried every possible angle-” </p><p>“You can’t just expect Enoch to sacrifice-”</p><p>Click.</p><p>Enoch detached his Electrochron Displacement Mechanism from his body, before handing it over to Simmons. Jemma looked at Enoch’s hand, disbelief written all over her face. </p><p>“I believe this is what you need,” Enoch stated calmly. He could feel a spark - not the metaphorical kind - in his abdomen. Jemma looked up at him, refusing to believe. Deke, Daisy, and Coulson stared at his hand in shock. </p><p>“Enoch…” Daisy started, before trailing off, being rendered speechless. Deke tore his eyes away from Enoch’s hand before looking at the Chronicom directly in the eye. </p><p>“What did you do?” Enoch only smiled calmly as the rest of the team subconsciously stepped closer to him. </p><p>“What needed to be done, apparently,” he replied, looking between his teammate’s shocked expressions. Simmons stared at him, tears welling up in her eyes. </p><p>“Enoch, you’ll die,” she said softly. Enoch felt a tug at his synthetic heart before replying. </p><p>“And the rest of you will live,” he said, looking Simmons square in the eye. “I would like to think Fitz would do the same for me.” he looked at the solemn faces of Deke, Simmons, Coulson, and Daisy. “I would like to think all of you would.”</p><p>The lights of Zephyr One flickered out before turning back on, and the team could hear the sizzle of a lone spark. Enoch stretched his hand out to Simmons, still holding the EMD, and she looked up at Daisy in uncertainty before taking it in her hands. </p><p>Though no words were spoken, Enoch knew, from his thousands of years of research on humans, that her expression was one of pure gratitude. She gave a smile to Enoch, to which he returned before Simmons left the room. The rest of the team remained silent. Deke stepped closer to Enoch, his expression mirroring his Nana’s, before putting his hand on the Chronicom’s shoulder. After a moment of eye contact with Enoch and sharing all his gratitude and goodbyes through that one moment of physical contact, Deke left the room as well. Daisy and Coulson remained. Enoch looked at them in confusion for a second before feeling an unfamiliar cold in his system. </p><p>“Oh, my,” Enoch started. He placed his hand on his stomach. Daisy felt herself tearing up as she felt the inevitable approaching. Coulson was frozen in his place, watching Enoch with pity. “I do not feel at all well.” </p><p>He grunted, starting to collapse until Coulson and Daisy caught him. They gently lowered him to the floor, and Enoch’s back rested on the wall. Daisy remained sitting on Enoch’s right side, Coulson on one knee to his left. After a brief moment of stillness, the trio heard the intercom crackle to life. </p><p>“Coulson, Daisy, Deke says he can get the drive working. We should be ready to jump out of the storm at any minute. We’ll let you know.” Mack’s voice vibrated through the room before going silent once more. Electricity crackled around the three as the rest of the team prepared themselves in the Command Center for the jump. It was at this realization that Enoch looked between Daisy and Coulson in confusion. </p><p>“Shouldn’t you get to the Command Center for the jump?” he asked softly, flinching in pain. Coulson was quick to reply. </p><p>“They’ll be fine without us,” he answered. Daisy shifted so that her body was closer to Enoch’s, the tears coming full force down her face. </p><p>“Does it hurt?” she asked, her voice breaking. Enoch paused before replying. </p><p>“It does, a bit,” he began. “But it’s not the physical pain that troubles me. I am acutely aware that in my thousands of years observing humans, I never used to feel lonely. I have been alone many times. To be candid, I preferred it. </p><p>But it wasn’t until I met this particular team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents that being alone meant… feeling lonely. And I don’t care for it. So… I am feeling, as you might expect, some anxiety now.”</p><p>“You don’t have to,” Coulson said gently, his stoic form slightly wavering. “You’re not alone. Daisy and I will stay with you right up to the end.” Enoch turned to face him. </p><p>“That is very kind of you. But… it’s that last part, isn’t it? You can stay with me up to the end, but you can’t come with me at the end. I will have to leave you.” He turned to face Daisy. “And I will have to do that alone. And I can’t help wondering, when that happens… will I feel lonely?” Coulson took a moment to process Enoch’s words before replying to assure the dying Chronicom. </p><p>“I can say with some authority that you’re not wrong,” Enoch faced him once more, feeling himself grow weaker and weaker. He felt wires in his system snap and more sparks flare in his abdomen. </p><p>“Dying is lonely,” Coulson continued. “But the feeling is temporary - at least for the person dying.” Daisy looked on, unable to speak and not wanting to scare Enoch more. She watched as Coulson continued to reassure him. “The ones who are left behind… less so. I guess that’s the one advantage to going first.” </p><p>“Yes,” Enoch responded quietly. He blanked out for a moment before continuing. “It's different, watching your friends go before you, isn’t it?” More electricity crackled in the room. “I have been through that as well. It can be harder to stay than to leave.</p><p>I’m sorry, Philip J. Coulson.” Coulson gave him a tiny smile in response, letting Enoch know that everything was going to be okay. Daisy finally mustered up the courage to speak. </p><p>“Enoch…” Enoch turned to face her. “The team will carry on the mission. We will survive because of you. Thank you.” </p><p>“You are most welcome,” the Chronicom said with kindness in his eyes. “But Agent Johnson, while your friends will indeed survive, the team will not.” Daisy widened her eyes in shock, and Coulson felt his body tense up at that sentence. </p><p>“W-What do you mean?” Daisy asked, clearly confused. Coulson silently leaned in, not believing what Enoch had said. Enoch felt a tear well up in his eyes. His body was growing significantly weaker. He didn’t have much time. </p><p>“I have seen the future. Carry on this mission and cherish it, for it will be your last mission together.” Daisy inhaled sharply, an incredulous look on her face. </p><p>“That’s… that’s not possible. I- I…” she trailed off when she saw the blank look in Enoch’s eyes. “Enoch, this is my family.” </p><p>“Of course,” he smiled sadly. “Yet this is the nature of family, isn’t it? I have seen it countless times on countless worlds. People arrive, so we celebrate, and people leave us, so we grieve. We do what we can with the time in between, but the cycle is always there. No one escapes it,” The room was encompassed in black before powering up again. “Not even me.”</p><p>“Which means you’re not alone,” Coulson said gently. Enoch felt a tear roll down his cheek. “You’re a part of that cycle.”</p><p>“Like every other living thing,” Daisy added, a small smile forming on her cheeks while gulping back more tears. Coulson and Daisy met eyes for the first time since setting Enoch down, knowing that the Chronicom could lose power at any second. Enoch looked straight ahead, but his vision was blocked by a sequence of unfamiliar number and letter combinations. His vision was flashing red, and he could feel himself slowly power down. </p><p>“Fitz,” he whispered, no longer having any energy to speak any louder. Daisy and Coulson snapped their eyes back onto Enoch’s face in confusion. Enoch’s tears were coming full force now. “He was my best friend.” he continued, closing his eyes. </p><p>Daisy felt her heartbreak at the sight of Enoch. Enoch wasn’t just a Chronicom. He helped save them multiple times. He risked everything for them. He wasn’t just a part of the team. He was their friend, and they were about to lose him. </p><p>“And you were a good friend to Fitz,” she replied, her voice raspy. “You were a good friend to all of us.”</p><p>“As I have always…” Enoch’s voice trailed off as his system completely gave out and his head tilted to one side. He could feel himself ascending to the universe, as well as Daisy and Coulson’s thoughts surrounding his soul. His name was repeated countless times, along with the familiar feelings of heartbreak and grief. The last thing he heard was electricity crackling around him and his friends once more before Mack’s voice rang on the intercom a final time. </p><p>“Jump successful, everybody. We’re safe.” Enoch felt his wires quiver once more before stilling. His visual and audio interfaces shut down.</p><p>Enoch felt himself become encompassed by the color black. His body was no longer his. Knowing humans in his thousands of years of research, he knew with 100% certainty that Philip J. Coulson’s team would hold a moment of silence for him, in his memory. He didn’t know what they would do with his body, or how they would break the news to Fitz. But he was thankful to have lived alongside them. Philip J. Coulson, Leopold Fitz, Jemma Simmons, Daisy Johnson, Melinda May, Alphonso Mackenzie, Elena Rodriguez, Deke Shaw, and Daniel Sousa, these agents have impacted this sentient Chronicom’s life more than he ever expected. </p><p>The black canvas of space opened up in front of him, dotted with endless stars and planets and galaxies. He no longer needed to hold on to any worries or burdens. His past no longer mattered. Yes, he may have left his good friends, but he would always watch over them. After all, he was now one with the universe.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>If I'm being completely honest, Enoch's death made me tear up. It was very emotional. And seeing him sitting against the wall, Daisy and Coulson at his side as he dies, it broke me. Long live Enoch.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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